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The Cool Cutting Edge

A little more than 16 years ago, I started out this ministry gig with the attitude that in order to do what God was calling me to do that I had to be concerned first and foremost with making church "cool." I was committed to leading a "cutting edge" student ministry and help develop a "cutting edge" church.

A couple of years in, as I was studying God brought me to this passage about doing "a new thing" that rocked my world:See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. -Isaiah 43:19My thoughts about being "cutting edge" resurfaced, but God began redefining this in me. Cutting edge ministry isn't to be about being "cool." A stream cuts across the desert, causing life to spring up and flourish in the wasteland. Jesus was and is the Stream in the desert. As the stream cuts through the desert, giving life, Jesus cut through history giving abundant and eternal life!

The church of God, the body of Christ, is the same. Everything we do should be "cutting edge," cutting across culture, denominations, background... life, causing the real life found in Jesus alone to spring up every day.Every once in a while, someone will say to me, "That was a really cool sermon," or "That song the band played was cool," or "It's really cool that your church feeds hungry families," or "The partnership you have with the local schools is really cool." Every time I hear those words, I can't help but think (and sometimes say), "Thank you, but is it life-giving? Through this did the love of Christ cut across the dry, dusty, harsh desert conditions of your life? Do you realize this isn't about being cool, but about proclaiming the Good News to those in the desert of life?"I surrendered the need to be "cool" a long time ago, and found that by just being myself and being owned by the mission of Jesus fir my life, that at times, I get accused of being "cool" anyway. Not a lot... but it happens. How is God leading you to be a part of His desert stream today?

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